From Altigator to Olympic GamesAspects of Electronic Warfare

Helmoed Römer HeitmanNovember 2017

The Electronic BattlefieldElectronic warfare in all its forms, from intelligence gathering through jamming

to electronic or digital attack is increasingly a factor in war.

That has long been understood in the conventional warfare environment –including communications disruption and more recently jamming of GPS signals,

of UAV command links and of electronic fuzes.

Today we must additionally consider the challenges arising from:• Irregular forces entering this domain - from the Lord’s Resistance Army to

Sandworm; • Disabling attacks on electronic systems; and• Remote attacks on non-military systems.

That presents a new set of challenges to defence forces and intelligence services, and raises the question of when an attack is an act of war, and how to respond?

CommunicationsGuerrillas, terrorists, bandits and smugglers all make use of telecommunications – from mobile and satellite telephones to email and social media. This makes them more effective, but also makes them vulnerable to:• Location and tracking;• Intelligence collection; and• Spoofing.

Syrian rebel forces

Kurdish forces in Iraq

Communications (2)

Seleka in the Central African Republic in 2013

Rebel Forces in Mali in 2013

Communications (3)

Democratic Republic of Congo – M23 – General Ntanganda’s Command Group

Democratic Republic of Congo – M23 – Colonel Makeni’s Command Group

Publicity and Propaganda

Guerrillas love publicity: Colonel Makeni of M23… …the Bakassi Strike Force…

FARC,- sending out press release. And they send selfies to friends…

All of which can get them tracked and killed:

Chechen General Dudayev was killed by modified anti-radar bombs homingon his satellite telephone while he gave an interview…

COMINT and SIGINT

COMINT and SIGINT systems will assume ever-greater

importance for operations against both regular and

irregular forces – and against criminal groups.

Improvised Explosive Devices (1)

IEDs come in all shapes and sizes, with activation and detonation by command wire, infra-red link or

radio/cell phone – or self-activation/detonation by infra-red beam, trip wire, pressure plate or triggered by

a jamming signal.

Unusual but not unknown, are remotely fired mortars and rocket launchers.

Improvised Explosive Devices (2)

Vehicle-borne IEDs – usually, but not always, electrically triggered by the driver; sometimes remotely. They are used in terrorist bombings and as part of attacks on bases, most often being detonated in or near the main gate to

shock the garrison as the attack commences. Some are armoured.

And then there is Boko Haram’s contribution to the art of war –

the girl-borne IED. The concept is for them to walk up to a patrol,

checkpoint or gate and talk to the soldiers or policemen, with the bomb then being detonated by

the handler from a safe distance.

Improvised Explosive Devices - Countermeasures

Specialised detection vehicles; jamming vehicles and jammers on vehicles; hand-held, man-portable and deployable systems; and remotely-operated systems.

Improvised Explosive Devices - Countermeasures

Airborne surveillance, detection and signal jamming systems are becoming an increasingly valuable tool

against a range of IEDs.

Guided Weapons

Some groups have received anti-tank missiles

An anti-tank missile used against a patrol boat off the Sinai.

Shoulder-launched SAMs are widely available to irregular forces and criminal groups

The INS Hanit was hit by an anti-ship missile off Lebanon, as was the former USNS Swift, now operated by the UAE, off Yemen.

Unmanned Vehicles (1)

Hamas in Gaza have a wide range of UAVs for reconnaissance purposes.

Hezbollah in Lebanon uses Iranian supplied UAVs.

Among other irregular forces using UAVs is Abu Sayef in the Philippines.

Unmanned Vehicles (2)

ISIS in Syria used UAVs for reconnaissance (Baiji, June 2015), command and control (Kobane, September 2015) and for propaganda (live broadcast of suicide bombings).

In Mosul, Iraq, ISIS used small quad-copter UAVs as attack systems, armed with ‘bombs’ made with adapted 40 mm grenades.

Unmanned Vehicles (3)

Hamas, meanwhile, has taken things further, and has begun working on arming UAVs with rockets. Can UAVs armed with

guided weapons be far behind?

Various government forces are using armed UAVs – including the Nigerian Defence Force.

And the Altigator Family…

Unmanned Vehicles (3)A Saudi Navy frigate was struck by a remotely-operated boat bomb off Yemen.

USS Cole was damaged in Aden by manned RIB laden with explosives.

MV Limburg was attacked by a fast boat laden with explosives while

passing Yemen. It is not clear whether the boat was manned

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Countering Unmanned VehiclesThis is still a relatively new line of business, and the extremely small size of some UAVs can make it very difficult –

a Global Hawk might fly high but is otherwise a relatively simple target for anyone with a SAM that has the requisite altitude; Predators even more so. But a Black Widow?

The larger UAVs will not be difficult to shoot down with an appropriate SAM or something like a 35 mm cannon with AHEAD ammunition, although it took 11 SAMs to shoot down a single Seeker UAV over Angola.

Other options will be to disrupt the command link, jam the GPS signal, intercept the down-link to ‘see what the enemy sees’ (achieved by the Taliban) or to capture the UAV.

Or just fry the electronics…

Information Operations/Social Media Operations

Integrated communications and command and control systems do make things easier for staff officers and commanders. But they also offer interesting opportunities for those who can get into those systems. Jamming, direction-finding and eavesdropping are ‘old hat’; now there is

potential to insert false information….

Similarly, radio propaganda has been around since radio broadcasting was invented, and TV is a widely used propaganda medium. But now it is possible to insert one’s propaganda into the

other side’s routine broadcasts. And drawing on the film-makers’ technology and experience, it is possible to ‘morph’ an opposing leader and have him say interesting things on TV….

And then there are the various ‘social media’, which lend themselves ideally to spreading a propaganda message – as demonstrated during the Arab Spring and more recently by Russian operations during the US elections. What is interesting here is that even where a dictatorship keeps the bulk of the population under-educated and vulnerable to its propaganda, that does

not mean the people are stupid – and access to social media can undo those efforts….

Cyber Operations have become a Reality Cyber-espionage. Propaganda insertion into broadcasts. Operation Olympic Games, against Iran. Denial of service attacks against Estonia. Attacks on Ukrainian electricity grids. GPS spoofing.

New Questions for Armed Forces:

When is a cyber attack an act of sabotage?When is a cyber attack an act of terrorism?When is a cyber attack an act of war?

What is a justifiable (in law) and practicable response in each case?

Who should be responsible for cyber domain intelligence, counter-intelligence, protection, defence, counter-attack and pre-emption?

Integration/interoperability = vulnerability?

And then….Electro-Magnetic Pulse Weapons

Modern electronics are wonderful – until lighting fries them. That is nature at work. Then there is a nuclear EMP that could shut down a city or large parts of a country.

Now EMP has arrived in the tactical domain – aerial weapons and even hand-held devices. Does this mean packing an abacus, notepaper, a pencil and a cleft stick for

operations in the future? Or perhaps signal flags or a heliograph?

And what about the digital ignition systems of vehicles?